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In 2008, Pete Sessions steered a $1.6 million earmark for dirigible research to an Illinois company.
John Shinkle

Ferguson declined to describe his relationship with Plesha.

“I’ve known him for a long time,” Ferguson said. “As you know, [Washington] is a small town.”

Likewise, Plesha would not comment about his work with the Fergusons or about any interactions he may have had with Sessions or his office concerning the earmark.

“As a policy, I never discuss anything regarding my clients other than what is already publicly available or required to be disclosed by law — especially for a client such as this where their technology is very much sought after by the larger defense and corporate shipping firms,” Plesha said in a statement provided to POLITICO.

In 1997 — before going to work for Sessions — Plesha was arrested for illegal possession of a handgun in Washington, after he shot a man who was burglarizing his apartment, according to court documents. Plesha claimed he had acted in self-defense, but the burglar said Plesha shot him three times in the back as he was running away. Plesha pled guilty to the handgun charge, was sentenced to 18 months’ probation and ordered to do 120 hours of community service.

Within a year, he was working as a campaign manager for Republican House candidate Charles Ball, who was running against then-Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.).

In that campaign, the FEC has said that Plesha created a fake Democratic committee to attack Tauscher. The FEC said the committee sent out 40,000 letters and made 10,000 phone calls to Democratic voters in Tauscher’s district just prior to the 1998 midterm elections suggesting that Democratic Rep. George Miller was opposing Tauscher’s reelection.

But Miller was, in fact, backing Tauscher. The FEC launched an investigation. And in a 2004 news release, the FEC said that Plesha had not only “authorized and distributed the fabricated letters and calls” but also “knowingly made false statements to the FEC” about them, “denying involvement in or knowledge of this scheme.”

According to the FEC and court documents, Plesha pled guilty to lying to investigators in the case. He was fined $5,000, placed on three years’ probation and ordered to do an additional 160 hours of community service, according to federal court documents. He also entered into a “conciliation agreement,” under which he was to pay a $60,000 civil penalty, the FEC said.

Lobbying disclosure records show that, beginning in November 2005, Ferguson and Plesha lobbied on behalf of Sphere Communications, a division of NEC Corp., the Japanese telecommunications giant. Plesha also worked for a time for a San Francisco-based defense contractor whose employees, FEC records show, had contributed heavily to Sessions and his PAC.

By 2006, lobbying disclosure forms show that Plesha was working for the Fergusons. The records show that he collected $51,400 in fees from the Fergusons during the last six months of 2006; nearly $292,000 more in 2007; and $64,500 in 2008.

The records show that the Fergusons are, by far, Plesha’s most lucrative lobbying clients.

Sessions’s office said Plesha wasn’t given any special access to his former boss.

“His role is clear: He and his client presented a position (i.e., briefing) to the congressman and his staff,” said a Sessions aide. “As with any project request, Congressman Sessions evaluates the merits of the project and accordingly makes a decision to either support or decline the request. Based on the project’s represented merits, ... Sessions decided to submit the request to the Appropriations Committee for its review and determination.”

And the Texas Republican still believes in the project, his staff said.

“Based on briefings that Congressman Sessions and his staff have received, projected applications of the technology include military surveillance, fuel-efficient military cargo transportation (especially into areas without adequate infrastructure) and missile defense,” Davis, the congressman’s spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Davis also noted that Sessions has supported a moratorium on all earmarks since the start of the 111th Congress, after the earmark for the Fergusons was approved.

Readers' Comments (307)

Take this earmark and multiply it by all the earmarks of every congressman. Assume a forth are legit., and that's a gift. Is there any doubt that earmarks ought to be eliminated? I don't know if the 1.6 million dollars for blimps was a good expendeture or not. And it's unclear whether Fergusons will produce the product, but we should expect better from the process.

Ear marks is a way to use taxpayer dollars to pay back firms who get congressmen elected. Its taxspayer dollars and those in congress have no problems spending or wasting it. Most have never worked a day in thier lives and they feel its there required duty to keep taxpayer dollars from sitting around and piling up. America would be so much better off if the US congress would go home and let state government taake care of the people's business. We need a much smaller US government. We need a complete turn over in congress and Washington but there are to many idiots in America for that to ever happen.

d mac if you hate earmarks, why are you cutting him slack for giving an aide's buddies 1.6 million to dink around with?

No slack given on the earmarks, which I thought was clear enough in post 1, just that it's not clear if the money for the blimps was wasted or not. It is precisely the process of earmarks that I have a problem with. On the reverse, if you don't dislike earmarks, and the money for blimps isn't wasted, than you're fine with the whole process, right?

NO SUPRISE JUST ANOTHER TYPICAL PATHETIC LYING GOP HYPOCRITE , from the SOUTHERN WASTELAND,,, ITS really NO WONDER that AMERICA KICKED MOST ALL of the GOP OUT of POWER and WASHINGTON ,,LAST NOV. 4TH .. FORTUNATELY ,,, AMERICA will CLEAN OUT and FINALLY get RID of the LAST of the USELESS corrupt. OLD GOP politicians in the NEXT 8 YEARS ,,

NO SUPRISE JUST ANOTHER TYPICAL PATHETIC LYING GOP HYPOCRITE , from the SOUTHERN WASTELAND,,, ITS really NO WONDER that AMERICA KICKED MOST ALL of the GOP OUT of POWER and WASHINGTON ,,LAST NOV. 4TH .. FORTUNATELY ,,, AMERICA will CLEAN OUT and FINALLY get RID of the LAST of the USELESS corrupt. OLD GOP politicians in the NEXT 8 YEARS ,,

I love when Politico does pieces lke this. Expose some of these conservaties for what they really are...the "secret" big spenders of the government.

Of course you mean "Expose all politicians that are "secret" big spenders, right? If so Congradulations, you don't like earmarks either. Or are you ok with "Secret" big spenders as long as it's democrats doing the spending?

Now, How about Health Care! That is what Sessions will fight against. He supports obvious waste on his special friends. As long as the GOP gets theirs screw the average American.

What difference does it make if Sessions or any other republican fights a public plan as part of healthcare reform? The democrats don't need a sinlge vote from Republicans to pass legislation. So given that earmarks are all about funneling money to special interests, whether they are a waste of money or not, and democracts are just as willing to ask for earmarks as republicans, even more willing in the last omnius bill, than by your logic, Democrats are the even more guilty of screwing the average american by not passing healthcare, no?

Taxpayers could be on the hook for $700 million if a measure to put wild horses back home on the range passes Congress.

A bill that would save wild horses and burros in the western United States from controlled killings and set aside millions of acres for them is heading to the Senate after passing the House of Representatives this month.

But the price tag, at a time of economic recession and gaping deficits, has some lawmakers champing at the bit to bridle the movement to finance and save these symbols of the American West.

"People have lost their jobs. They can't keep their homes. And the answer to people losing their homes is -- let's go spend $700 million for homes and welfare for wild horses," said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.